AS SOON AS POSSIBLE

BRENDAN's POV

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[1 day later]
FUCKING HELL,
I'm such a piece of shit. What the fuck am I doing right now?

I was late to notice but now I was starting to figure it out.

As a felt a pair of stranger cold hands slowly massage my upper back, almost touching the nape of my neck, all my senses quickly seemed to have come to place.

My eyes then immediately opened, followed by a long sigh coming from the inside of my mouth that I very well presumed tasted like a mix between strong iced whiskey and cigarettes, since I felt the dryness coming from all the way down of my throat.

The light was dim, which made my eyes close again, enough to make the whole of my face shudder in disgust.

A pointed frustrating noise on my ears was infuriating me, my body responded by abruptly moving away from whoever was touching me, which made me lose my balance, literally out of nowhere.

"Rhys?" I heard a feminine monotonous voice call for me, just as I was about to fall on the ground.

"Shit!" I cursed.

My eyes were now opened again, though they were facing the dark ground, that seemed like was floating underneath me - confusion and annoyance filled them, but from some odd reason I hadn't felt the girl's hand holding my left upper arm, making me stand still, preventing me from falling right there.

Fuck Brendan, what the fuck is wrong with you? I said to myself almost instantly, however, I still wasn't totally awakened.

Dickhead. Yeah, I'm so fucking drunk it pisses me the hell off, honestly.

I'm standing still now so I retrieve my arm, pushing it away from the grasp that was previously on it.

My gaze slowly mirrors on the figure before me, as I catch her view – a girl with long dark brunette hair and clear brown eyes looks at me with worry plastered in her face, her mouth is mid opened and her knotted eyebrows tell me she's confused too.

I recognize her immediately though, I mean, taking into account that my mind is a mess at the current moment and the fact that my senses are probably too slow to catch feelings and sensations perhaps I might have taken too long to figure out what's actually going on.

"Are you okay?" Cheryl asked me with her soft voice but I didn't even blink, she got no response from me.

Only then I noticed I was inside of a very large bluish bathroom, next to the sink, my head was bent down and both of my shaking hands were touching the sides of the sink. The water was running.

"I-" I tried to say. Nevertheless, I was interrupted by the sound of something I can guess is my iPhone, I could tell from its vibration on my pocket.

My fingers stressfully looked for the object in a hurry. I heard Cheryl mumble something but I wasn't paying any attention.

The locked screen came into view and I saw I had just received a message:

"Where r you? I need you here ASAP"- Colber

Fuck, I can't believe I'm late for the reunion. How could have I forgotten?

My brain was telling me I had to move so that's what I did

– last night I wasn't thinking properly, what a dumb move to drink my ass off when I had the circle meeting less than twenty-four hours away – I was mentally cursing to myself because of my difficulty in moving my rigid body, once I tried to leave the bathroom.

"You're not going anywhere like that, Rhys" Cheryl adverted me, sounding serious and demanding behind me.

Seriously, the last thing I fucking need right now is a babysitter to tell me what to do.

"I'm good" I answered, founding myself already inside the living room.

I looked over at the watch that was on my left wrist: 22:46 PM. Shit, how long have I been blacked out?

Colber's speech was coming in twenty minutes and here was I, battling this freaking horrible hangover inside a house I barely knew, next to someone I had only met once or twice.

"Good, uh? You've been vomiting for the past hour Brendan." She eyed me with judgmental eyes, her arms were crossed and her features showed me she wasn't happy at all with me.

Man, I don't really need this right now.

"Whatever, I need to go somewhere."

I answered in a rough voice, damn I could get so easily pissed from time to time. The truth is, this has been my routine every single day, getting up with my head all fucked up, being sickened and annoyed. Not that I cared much about it.

"Yeah? Fine, just know next time I won't answer your calls asking for me to let you in inside my house in that miserable state."

I saw her unenthusiastic backfire to me, as she stepped over to my side, sitting on her black sofa. The way she said those words without even looking at me in the eyes, gave me the idea she wasn't too keen on seeing me leaving, but wasn't too bothered either.

"C' mon Cheryl, we both know you would let me in any way" I answered, oblivious to her personal opinions, trying to focus my stare on her petite curvy body that was partly touching the mattress of the sofa.

My instant comeback was to shrug my shoulders like I was indifferent to what she had to say about me and to be quite frank, I am completely unmoved.

It's not like Cheryl didn't know how I usually function, or how I actually am around girls like herself. She might not know me well, be aware of my tastes, dislikes, or feelings, but she definitely knew I wasn't on the table for relationships when we got involved the first time, I made sure that she got that.

I guess I'm not used to reacting to this kind of things – I mean, you know, romance stuff - I'm not that kind of guy, I never was.

She was right in one point though, I was a first class prick, which was something I was definitely aware of.

The only few times I came to her place, or even to see her, was to be close to her naked body on her own bed. Adding to that was my wasted condition and my usual stony unresponsive personality.

We would spend the night together and that was it – no offside conversations, questions about the life of one another, nothing. She was a mystery to me because I hadn't gotten close to knowing her properly since I met her in the bar I use to frequent, neither had she when it came to me.

In reality, we were strangers who would fuck occasionally.

Then she gasped like she was somehow surprised by my words but was quick to add "You're a fucking egoistic asshole Rhys."

She got up from the sofa, completely pissed off. She didn't approach me as I expected, yet she only closely analyzed me through her detached cold eyes before opening her mouth once again,

"Look at yourself. You're fucked up, not to mention totally dumbfounded. You have no idea that one day you'll have to deal with your own problems. But guess what, you have got to, and you'll be by yourself on that."

"Just make sure you won't keep going downhill, though that's up for you to decide." Was her response.

I would be an idiot if I said those few sentences didn't leave me uncomfortable and apprehensive. Cheryl had touched on a topic I refuse to comment about, especially now that my mind keeps wandering off to stupid, nonsense things.

Nevertheless, I believe she is right. For once, I do have a great amount of trouble to deal with. Secondly, I still, do not care about a single thing. Third, I am indeed obviously fucked up.

I guess I've lost hope on me at this point. Again, not that it matters anyway.

Without sparing me one more glance, I could see from my shaking, dull and dry sight that she left the room, turning her back on me. I then put on my jacket and reached for my car keys, before leaving Cheryl's house.

"On my way"
I texted Colber back.

Enough with this drama.
I have a party to attend, anyway.

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I've been inside this familiar house for a while now, how I was able to drive my car properly was beyond me, though I was glad I had arrived with all my bones in its place.

Stretching my elbows around the surface of the kitchen table, I lazily looked at the glass that I was holding, filled with alcohol.

I'm aware I should have stopped drinking by now, but for some reason, being surrounded by people who I hate to guts was in itself a very understanding motive for me to proceed to pour the acid liquid in my mouth every five seconds.

We have been waiting for Colber to start the speech we've all been curious to hear since we had decided the place and time for the reunion to happen.

We will be discussing important matters tonight, which most of them, in order to be effective, need the approval of the majority, if not all the twenty-five circle members.

Today's a big day apparently and I couldn't be more lost in thought - I am feeling as if I'm strangely absent-minded.

I'm pretty sure I look miserable anyway, my eyes feel heavy and sensitive to lights, my dirty curly blond hair keeps falling on my forehead and my dark leather jacket is smelly.

I sigh. Maybe this has been a bad idea all along. Or maybe I'm just tired of drinking too much. Either way, I don't feel like I should be here.

Yet I am, like I had promised my best friend. I had given him my word to support him, so I don't think I had the balls or the heart to turn my back on him tonight.

My eyes recognized all these faces. Some of my football team members were dancing around with other girls from our group. Few were kissing the life out of each other.

My sight traveled to the three guys who had formed a circle beside me, next to the kitchen's fridge.

Sean Windsor, Travis Walker, and Kit Osborne were chit chatting as usual - there were drinking opened bottles on their hands and cigarettes on their mouths as they laughed at some pointless joke they had heard from the other side of the room.

The broad confident smirks they were wearing now was they trend mark even before senior year, that's what made Cassidy, Melissa, and Page join the group in the first place, those girls could never take their eyes off of them.

A few things had changed over the years, but the truth is, from what I've experienced over time, each one of them always got what they wanted. I'd be bullshitting over this if it wasn't for Cassidy who had just confirmed my exact thoughts.

There she was, only a few feet away from Walker, observing him from behind with puppy eyes that revealed her mad craziness for him. Predictable.

I truly hope she has no idea who he fucked around this week because if she does, man, I don't want to be here to watch a girl's fight over this dick.

From all of us, Travis was the one who enjoyed girl's company the most, so he had marked Page all for himself – which left poor little Cassidy devastated (yeah, she isn't innocent in this story either) though I wouldn't quite say he is exclusively dating Page

- I mean, like I said, he probably had sex 10 times today.

Sean, well, that son of a bitch likes to toss his cards every now and then in hopes he gets lucky. As for Kit, he may stay on the bench, but he sure knows how to play dirty games when he sees the advantages it can bring to him.

My gaze then trailed over to the bodies that were some feet away lying over the stairs. There I found Jonathan Pierce smoking what I quickly identified as being pot, alongside the backup cheerleaders from Melissa's acrobatic team.

He must be fucking kidding.

I was quick to move my feet in his direction, jumping out from my previous seat on the kitchen table, now to find his face stand before me. I'm sure I might seem a little on edge here, though I feel free to blame it on the alcohol.

"What do you think you're doing?" I asked to his face, the four girls who were sitting beside him eyed me perplexed.

"Oh- hey man. There you are."

Jonathan talked, as if he had no clue why I was calling him out on the drugs, "Thought you had given up on us or something"

He smartly joked about me being late, his green eyes holding mischief as his eyebrows contracted in a relaxed mode.

"Yeah, I'm here. Are you? What has gotten into your fucking head, Pierce?" I am practically screaming at him at this point, the anger building up inside me.

"Are you okay Rhys? You don't seem so fine." He said, his face now becoming tense as he approached me. Silence circulated through the whole area.

"Want some?" I saw his fingers close to my neck holding a joint.

"Are you fucking for real? Why on earth would you fucking smoke weed in Colber's house? Didn't we talk about not bringing up drugs here?"

I fought the urge to smack his chin, focusing on his eyes instead of his punchable irritating face.

"We're just having a good time here, bud, me and the girls."

He calmly answered, looking back at chicks who were also smoking. "Do you see any cops around? Dude, you need to chill the fuck out."

"I'm not talking about the police Jonathan. He told you not to smoke didn't he so why would you?"

I can see he's excited by seeing me boil as a response to his stupid actions. I don't know what the hell went through his mind but he's honestly messing with me on purpose.

"What if he did? He tells us what to do and not to do anyway, doesn't he? I just needed some peace of mind so I lit the pot. The girls agreed. What's wrong with that?"

"You're fucking out of your mind." I faked a gasp. He's ridiculous.

"What? We have beef now, Rhys?" I saw him getting closer to me, our faces now almost touching, my height surpassing his by few millimeters.

Now I was finally getting him mad.

He wasn't clearly happy to see me confront him, but I wasn't either. We were given instructions and rules to follow and this motherfucker was fucking us all up and nobody was doing anything about it,

"You tell me – do we?"

"Hey, everything's alright?" Kit's voice sounded from behind my back.

"Yeah, everything's fine. I think Brendan's just stressed out for the next match on Monday." Jonathan said, without taking his eyes off of me, almost as if he had already thought about what excuse to say.

"Rhys?" A few seconds passed.

"I'm good." I blinked, turning my attention to Kit,

"Where's Colber?"

"He's upstairs, I think he went for the bathroom"

"What's taking him so long?" I sighed once I got no answer back, only a blank stare.

Sure I was losing my patience too fast, but I had almost killed myself on the way to Colber's house after he texted me asking for my presence and now he's nowhere to be seen.

"I'll go check on him. Make sure you find a way to get rid of the smell before he gets pissed at you" I spit at Jonathan, before making my way to climb the stairs.

These dickheads sound like they're clueless about what's actually happening.

I don't think Colber will be satisfied once he finds out the people he puts his trust on are more interested in partying and get absolutely wasted than to make relevant decisions, also, are disobeying him in his own house.

Knowing my best friend, I could only wish for him to be optimistic about his plans. Unfortunately, I felt like he had a bunch of cynical people showing fake love to him.

Maybe he was right – who knows if this will only bring the circle members closer to one another.

At least now we all got something to be scared about.

As I climb the last stair, my sight focus on a figure who is curved on the ground in the hallway, shaking. I'm hearing what I think could be described as being sobs.

My suspicions are right once I get a look at this person's wept face

"Brendan?"

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To be Continued

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Hi yall! What are your thoughts on this one? What's your first impression of Brendan? Did you notice anything suspicious? And who might be that person who's crying in a corner?

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